Smooth Billiard with Bamboo (1219) Tobacco Pipe

A lot of carvers and makers use bamboo to accent their pipes. It's a common material, but it's one that's subtly difficult to incorporate well into a piece's composition. David Huber has utilized the organic material beautifully in this Billiard though — the rhythm of the four knuckles neatly echoed by the curved transition and rounded heel below the bowl. It creates a visual sense of momentum, speeding up through the shank and ushering the eyes into the bowl's tapered walls and forward cant. Inside, the bowl houses a chamber that's both broad and deep, the rim softly rounded for a Danish-like aesthetic. Meanwhile, Huber's deft craftsmanship is testified to by how the American carver has fitted the bamboo to the stummel and the stem: The small dimples at each of the bamboo's ends are continued into the briar and vulcanite, making for all the more balanced and cohesive a composition.